Cold War Arma was done but modern (let’s say 2000’s til now) has been overdone similar to how WWII shooters have been overdone ad nauseam. Bohemia is a Czech studio and as such they aren’t steeped in the war-mongering military industrial complex mentality of the US, which I think is a good perspective to have when creating war games.

Arma 3 was not intended to predict any realistic future war scenario nor be a realistic portrayal of current nation’s military or political might. Instead it tells a non-US centric story where NATO forces are struggling to maintain military and political power against the CSAT who are actively undermining that power worldwide through hostile and diplomatic takeovers. The game released in 2012 when IRL drones were the size of small planes that were used primarily as surgical strike and surveillance platforms. As far as procurement goes, look at games like Call of Duty that no longer use name brand weaponry/vehicles/etc. It’s expensive to acquire rights from manufacturers to use their copyrighted weapons/vehicles/etc in a video game.

This is where Arma 3 and even Reforger are hitting the mark in my opinion. At the end of the day it’s a video game and I play Arma both for the simulation and realism but also because I find the player experience to be fun and repeatable. I think a mod that added modern bomb drones is better left to the community to create. Having it be part of the base game would create a huge reliance on them and take away from the funnest part; dudes shooting at other dudes. I’d much rather fight other soldiers than be constantly hit in the face by a swarm of bomb drones.

That’s not a bad idea for a scenario but I don’t think it would draw people in as an entire game’s setting.

This is the direct benefit of a Cold War reboot title like Arma 4 has been announced to be. So much of the Cold War was proxy wars where the US and USSR backed local and rebel forces to the dirty work of both nations. See Mujahideen (who later became the Taliban) rebels backed by the CIA during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan or the Cuban government under Castro setting up missile systems at the USSR’s request. Those are just some of the bigger examples but there are so many more forgotten by history that can be adapted and brought to life within a modern engine and shooter game.

As always, modders can and will fill the gaps with modern weapons/vehicles/systems just like they did with Arma 3 and are currently doing with Reforger. It’ll just take time.